Caring for her husband who suffers with dementia, Comox resident Delores Broten struggles with a hard decision. He’s falling now, but should she approve strapping him into a wheelchair? It seems inhumane, and she’s reaching out for help.

In presentations to the Island Health board of directors, three Comox Valley seniors advocacy groups criticized the recent residential care bed RFP, said Island Health doesn’t provide us with an equitable share of resources and exposed mistreatment of seniors and a new hospital that isn’t clean

Without public notice, Island Health holds its March board meeting a day early in Victoria, doesn’t address Comox Valley Hospital issues at “public forum” in Courtenay. But seniors health care advocates make passionate pleas for more resources

The Island Health board will hear presentations from individuals and community groups tomorrow in Courtenay about health care issues in the Comox Valley and wider region. But little has been done so far to address concerns at the Comox Valley Hospital where a record high 178 admitted patients was recorded Friday.

Union Bay residents hope to protect Langley Lake, their source of drinking water, from increased turbidity that could result from logging in the watershed, and heal some tensions in the community along the way.

A B.C. Supreme Court hearing scheduled for this morning (March 15) to determine whether to grant standing to the Mack Laing Heritage Society (MLHS) in the Town of Comox’s application to vary one of the famous ornithologis’s trusts has been adjourned until April. But Shakesides supporters left the court session encouraged.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority (Island Health) has reissued a Request for Proposals to add 120 new beds for patients requiring a complex level of care in the Comox Valley. Island Health says it hopes to award contracts for the new beds in early May and expects they will open for patients sometime in 2020.

Municipal election countdown

Minister of Education, Rob Fleming, announced May 22 in Courtenay that the provincial government will invest $27.2 million to rebuild three-quarters of Lake Trail school. Children will be staying in the school as it’s rebuilt and construction will start next spring, with the doors re-opening in September 2021. SD71 is making a $1 million dollar investment towards the project as well.

Also announced was the creation of 60 new childcare spaces at Lake Trail, alleviating the pressures faced by many families trying to find spaces to care for their children.

Brooke Finlayson, of Comox Valley Families for Public Education, had lunch with Fleming and other education stakeholders.

“I told him that parents were asking for stable and predictable yearly funding that reflected inflation rates; that children were in need of more resources through LSTs, EAs, speech pathologists, counsellors, etc.,” she wrote on the CVFPE Facebook page. “I said our struggling learners needed better and timely access to assessments and resources; and that curricular components like sexual health, should not be downloaded to parents/PACs to fundraise to provide for every odd year.”

Sustainability Forum tomorrow night

The Comox Valley Council of Canadians, Imagine Comox Valley And the Global Awareness Network have organized a Sustainability Forum at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 24, in the Rotary Room of the Filberg Center in Courtenay.

The groups hope to raise the profile of sustainability in this fall’s elections, and call attention to the eight goals of the Comox Valley Sustainability Strategy that all four Valley municipal governments adopted in 2010.

Comox Valley municipal governments have passed their budgets and most taxpayers will see a small increase next year.

In Comox, Mayor Paul Ives said the town’s five-year financial plan will raise residential property taxes about 2.43 percent, which he called “basically the rate of inflation,” and that property tax increases will be stable into the future.

And, he said the tax increases are “affordable, manageable and hopefully won’t put a burden on anyone.”

In Courtenay, property taxes are expected to increase about 2.83 percent. The budget has divided Courtenay council members, with Mayor Larry Jangula and Councillor Mano Theos voting against the budget because they wanted to freeze property tax rates.

The Comox Valley Regional district has approved a budget increase of 2.7 percent, or about $3.14 million. The CVRD has factored big projects such at the water treatment plant and a new office building into its new budget.

Lame Joke Du Jour

A guy walks into a bar, and there’s a seal sitting at the far end of the room.

The seal says to the man, “I like the way you smell. You’ve got a great haircut. Your jacket looks great on you. Nice tan.”

Thought Du Jour

“Voting is how we participate in a civic society — be it for president, be it for a municipal election. It’s the way we teach our children – in school elections – how to be citizens, and the importance of their voice.”